Court approves extradition of Florian Homm to US

German financier accused of $200-million scam

(ANSA) - Rome, January 10 - Italy's supreme Cassation Court
on Friday approved extradition to the United States for German
ex-financier Florian Homm, accused of fleecing hedge-fund
clients of roughly $220 million through market-manipulation
schemes.
Homm's case now goes to Italy's justice minister, Anna
Maria Cancellieri, who has final say over his extradition.

"We will appeal to Strasbourg," he added, making reference
to the European Court of Human Rights.
The Cassation also rejected Homm's petition to be
hospitalized rather than kept at the San Giovanni Bosco prison
in Pisa, where he is now.

Homm's lawyer says his client suffers from a
neuro-degenerative disease and that his health in prison is
deteriorating quickly without proper diagnosis or therapy.
Zanchetti said the court-appointed physician who assessed
Homm's condition determined that his disease cannot be cured or
treated, and that what little can be done also can be carried
out in prison.
"But in the Pisa prison, there is only one bicycle, which
does not even have an adjustable seat for someone who is more
than two metres tall like Homm," said Zanchetti.
"I had hoped that the Cassation Court would concede
hospitalization at least until the sclerosis that hit him has
been typed. He entered the prison walking. Now he needs
crutches," Zanchetti added.

After a five-year flight from justice, the once highly
regarded, cigar-chomping hedge-fund financier was arrested last
March while visiting the Uffizi Galleries in Florence, on a tip
from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Homm fled his Mallorca home in September 2007, and wrote in
a published memoir - written in hiding - that he boarded a
private jet with $500,000 stuffed in his Calvin Klein underwear,
a briefcase and a cigar box, accompanied by his "friend and
mule" Giorgio, who carried another $700,000.
According to The Independent newspaper, Los Angeles
prosecutors accuse Homm of orchestrating a share manipulation
schemes that led to losses of at least $200 million for
investors throughout the world, and if convicted, he faces up to
75 years in prison.